Karen Kangas-Preston

Karen Kangas-Preston is a Senior Academic Specialist—Teaching with extensive experience in costume design, construction, and stage makeup. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Costume Design from Illinois State University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Design and Technology from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. In addition to teaching all costume-related courses, she serves as the MFA Design Program Director and led the successful Theatre in London/Exploring British Theatre program 2008 – 2024. Karen has developed several courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Areas of specialization include costume design and production, costume crafts, global costume history, drawing and painting techniques, and stage makeup. Additional coursework in British theatre history, dramatic literature, theories of acting, voice and movement, and period styles have been taught as part of the London education abroad program.

Her costume designs have been seen at Williamston Theatre (A Very Williamston Christmas, Maytag Virgin, On the Market, Mrs. Harrison, Silent Sky, Our Lady of Poison, and Decade Dance), Meadow Brook Theatre (Vanities the Musical, The Rat Pack Lounge, Footloose, Ella: First Lady of Song, Noises Off, Little Shop of Horrors, Fancy a Country Jukebox Musical, The Marvelous Wonderettes, Stick Fly, Mom’s Gift), Tipping Point Theatre (A Very Northville Christmas, Tracy Jones, and Smell of the Kill); Summer Circle Theatre (Fallen Angels, Mr. Burns a Post-Electric Play, and The Drunken City), and MSU’s Department of Theatre (UrineTown, Oklahoma!, Cyrano De Bergerac, and Stage Door). Additionally, her work has been exhibited at several national conferences. Karen is a 2019 recipient of the MSU Distinguished Academic Staff Award, a 2018 recipient of the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) Fixed-term & Academic Specialist Excellence in Leadership Award, and a 2021 recipient of the International Studies & Programs Outstanding Service to Education Abroad Award. She has served on the Academic Specialist Advisory Committee and the CAL Taskforce for Non-tenure Track Pathways where the team’s project on Reimagining Non-tenure Stream Faculty and Academic Staff Evaluation & Career Pathways at MSU was chosen as part of the Provost’s Academic Strategic Plan and won the 2024  Delphi Award for its dedicated work to include non-tenure-track faculty as full partners through its Charting Pathways of Intellectual Leadership (CPIL) initiative.